Our very first stop on the morning that we arrived in Stratford was the Revel Caffe.  We were able to grab a few moments with Anne, Revel’s passionate owner.  Revel features direct trade coffee brewed from high altitude, shade grown, hand harvested beans roasted fresh each week.  Now if that is not a commitment to quality, then what is?  Anne and her staff have personally connected with their coffee producer in Nicauagara-Don Reynaldo where she and staff joined in on the 2012 harvest.

Anne’s baristas are also passionate about creating coffees that work both for the local and global communities.

I was especially enthralled by their community table, not just because it was obviously restored from recycled elements but for what it represented.  This was where “revellers” gather (what the regulars at Revel are so named).

On this day it was a knitting circle.

Outdoor patio season was still going strong.

Here’s a cozy spot that I could while away an afternoon at.

Canadian Grub to Go was our second stop where we picked up lunch to eat in the nearby Shakespearean Gardens.

There, we met Robert, who only serves Canadian food products from his wonderful storefront.

He may have to revise the restaurant’s name because he is now serving “grub to stay” in the rear of his location, which he indicated has just recently been completed.

I tucked into this smoked maple ham with grilled onions.

D chose the pulled pork and gooey cheese.

I admire what Robert has done with his brand and his retail space.

His restaurant felt more like home than a place to grab a sandwich.

Kath’s quote: “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare

Love-that is all.

Sister #3 missed out on our family Thanksgiving dinner.  She helps D and I take care of the kids when we host our Young Families’ group.  I had abundant left overs and instead of getting tired of them during the days following the Thanksgiving, I repanned everything and put it all in the freezer to feed another large group.  There are approximately 20 of us in the Young Families Group including toddlers and babies, so this seemed like a good time.  I decided that a baked ham would do the trick to adequately feed everybody and that the ham would pair well with my leftovers of sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and roasted garlic potatoes and baked squash and quinoa.  The supper was a success, but then I was left with a new challenge-what to do with the leftover ham?

I dug out an old recipe that I know that my family loves but was amazed at how much fat it contained.  By the time I had finished modifying it, I had written an entirely new recipe.

The recipe indicates using three different potatoes but this is only because I had three varieties in my fridge.  We have loved all the assortment of potatoes in our garden share basket this season.  I used the array of pink and blue (looked more like dark purple to me) ones for this dish.  I would recommend though that at least one variety be a sweet potato because they have different nutrient values that regular potatoes.  In addition, the combination of the sweetness of the sweet potato and the saltiness of the ham, is one of my favourite taste combinations.  Add the tartness from the sour cream and the sharpness of the old cheddar cheese and we are really onto something here….

Since I was using more than one kind of potato, I had a hard time judging how many pounds I was using.  D eyeballed it at five pounds but I thought closer to ten, so I doubled the “moisture” , that is sour cream and cream soup.

Under normal circumstances, I would have put the second casserole in the freezer but I love to send our kids home with leftovers after mandatory Sunday suppers, so I did so and now we have enough left for supper tonight!

Kath’s quote: “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.” –Calvin Trillin

Love-that is all.

Disclosure: This post was created for the Manitoba Canola Growers Be Well Blog .  I was compensated for my work.  My ideas and opinions are my own.

We have always held family pizza nights in our home.  When our now grown children were younger, it was Thursday evenings.  This was a time designated to “us” as a family.  Now though, we are influenced by travel and our favourite Chefs.

Read my Adventures with Pizza and try my Quattro Pizza on Homemade Dough recipe on the Manitoba Canola Growers Be Well Blog and be sure to enter The Great Pizza Story Contest while you are there.  Great prizes to be won including a personal pizza making lesson for you and 5 friends with Chef Mary Jane Feeke of Benjamin’s Foods in Selkirk.

Eat Well.

Kath’s quote: “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”-Yogi Berra

Love-that is all.

Hello readers.  Many of you know that D and I recently took a mini vacation to Stratford, Ontario to take in the Festival.  Upon arrival, it was clearly apparent that Stratford is fast becoming more than a theatre town.  Their skilled chefs and exceptional restaurants would be reason enough to spend a week.  One of the many aspects that we enjoyed was following a couple of culinary trails.  The Bacon and Ale Trail was a fun way to add some structure to our “sight”-seeing tour.  In other words: see it and eat it!

In addition to a number of dining treats, the trail included a couple of retail visits as well.  First up was Bradshaw’s for a copy of the Little Black Book of Beer.   Just around the corner to where our B&B was located on Birmingham was Turnbull & Stewart’s where we were gifted with a cellar of Bacon Sea Salt.  I first used it to brighten up some Swiss chard back home and the results were lovely.

We peeked in the windows of Monforte Osteria on Wellington the evening previous and knew that we would love our light lunch the next day as a part of the trail.

We were heading to a matinee at the Stratford Festival Theatre and did not want to become sluggish, so the small plates of house-made charcuterie featuring pork from whey-fed pigs, were just perfect.  The tastes of capicolla sausage, pork confit, summer sausage and a Tuscan sheep cheese

washed down with a half glass of Ontario craft beer celebrated many of the best tastes of the region.

This was our simple perch for lunch.  At another table in the vicinity we listened as visitors tasted water buffalo milk ice cream (did I hear that correctly?) for the first time.

D and I are quite addicted to all the new (to us) wines that we sampled from Ontario vineyards and Monforte promotes a fine selection.

The simple design of the Osteria was so inviting that I would have loved to have curled up with a book and a cuppa tea.  But alas, “the theatre awaits….”

Foster’s Inn Restaurant & Bar was one of our stops on our first evening in Stratford.

We loved this cozy corner in the lounge.  If I were to one day open my own version, it would look a just like this.

I was able to take these between the breakfast and lunch rush on our last day in Stratford.

I had returned for Foster’s hospitality to pick up another item from our trail: country style pork terrine wrapped in smoked bacon and accompanied by tomato chutney.  The delicious treat is usually served with Mill’s Street’s Tankard ale but ours was “to go” and we enjoyed it with the picnic that we had later in the day at the vineyards of Jackson Triggs.

D attempted to single-handedly complete the Maple Trail as well.  For my international readers (and yes, I do have a few): Maple is a cherished Canadian product which is a natural sweetener produced for centuries from red and black maple trees.

Another addition to our late afternoon picnic were the individual blueberry and pecan pies (they had sold out of the maple pie) that we picked up once we left Stratford at Shakespeare Pies. 

Stay tuned.  There are many more “see it and eat it” adventures in Stratford to come.

Kath’s quote:  “And, most dear actors, eat no onions or garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: Away! Go, away!”  – Shakespeare- A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Love-that is all.

Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project, whose mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries. SACH is totally dedicated to the idea that every child deserves the best medical treatment available, regardless of the child’s nationality, religion, color, gender or financial situation. nnSACH is motivated by the age-old Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world. By mending the hearts of children, regardless of their origin, SACH is contributing to a better and more peaceful future for all of our children.

Since 1995, Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) has treated more than 3,000 children suffering from congenital and rheumatic heart disease aging from infancy to 18 years of age from the “four corners of the Earth” –  45 countries where adequate medical care is unavailable.  Approximately 50% of the children are from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Morocco; more than 30% are from Africa; and the remaining are from Asia, Eastern Europe and the Americas.  The annual number of children treated by SACH has grown dramatically from 48 cases in 1996 to 298 in 2012.  At any given moment there are thousands of children suffering from heart disease around the world who require our assistance.